When the dust settled on the trade deadline, the Colts still had running back Jonathan Taylor under contract. It was not the outcome that most around the league expected.
All signs pointed to the Colts taking the best offer at 3:45 p.m. ET and processing the paperwork before the top of the hour. Whatever the best offer was.
But that’s what a functional organization would have done. The Colts currently are not.
The Giants were willing to give up a second-round pick and a fifth-round pick for Taylor. It’s unclear for now whether anyone else was willing to do better than that.
In the interim, Taylor spent two weeks not knowing what would happen. He didn’t get an assurance he wouldn’t be traded until roughly an hour before the window closed. (Even then, the leak felt more like a “last call” to interested suitors.)
The fans spent that same period of time wondering what the Colts were doing. And Taylor got only eight carries in the 42-7 loss to Jacksonville, at a time when it felt like a trade was imminent.
So what happens next for Taylor? If they try to trade him in the offseason, they won’t do better than they would have done when a contender was willing to pay a premium in an effort to win now. And if they don’t get at least as much as they could have gotten on Tuesday, will they refuse to trade him again?
Taylor could end up being stuck on the Colts during an obvious rebuild. Then, by the time it’s rebuilt (if it ever is), Taylor will be past his prime.
The simplest explanation is that the Colts slipped into dysfunction on this one. And it’s no surprise. Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon is still fairly new to the job. The G.M. has been fired. And coach Shane Steichen hopes to win enough games to have a chance to keep his job; he surely wasn’t lobbying to lose his best player.
So what should the Colts have done? When they were doing the deals for guard Quenton Nelson and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, they should have asked for the various Taylor suitors to make their last, best offers. And the Colts should have made a final decision then and there as to whether he’d be traded or retained.
Instead, they decided to wait and see whether the offers would improve. Taylor was left to wonder about his future. After the Week 9 loss to the Cowboys, he basically said goodbye to Indianapolis.
The Eagles didn’t play it that way with running back Saquon Barkley. They knew what was out there, they decided not to take the best offer, and they informed Barkley that he wouldn’t be changing teams.
The Colts instead kicked the can, not accepting the best offer and hoping it would impove. That gave Taylor two weeks to ponder the possibility of playing for a contender before the Colts decided not to pull the trigger on a trade.
They’ll never admit it, but the Colts will come to regret not taking the best deal. Because the offers won’t get any better after the season. At some point, Taylor is going to realize it’s in his best interests to request a trade.
That will be a problem for the next G.M. to deal with. And that wrinkle won’t make the job more attractive to a candidate who has options.
